John Dickinson

John Dickinson (8 November 1732-14 February 1808) was Governor of Delaware from 13 November 1781 to 12 January 1783 (succeeding Caesar Rodney and preceding John Cook) and of Pennsylvania from 7 November 1782 to 18 October 1785 (succeeding William Moore and preceding Benjamin Franklin). He was a founding father of the United States, and he was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.

Biography
John Dickinson was born in Trappe, Maryland in 1732, and he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1757. Dickinson wrote the Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania in protest against the Townshend Acts, and, alongside his wife Mary Norris, he lived on a wealthy estate near Germantown, now a neighborhood of Philadelphia.

American Revolution
In 1774, Dickinson was chosen as one of Pennnsylvania's delegates to the First Continental Congress, and he also attended the Second Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776. He wrote two petitions to King George III in last attempts for peace, and his object was reconciliation with Great Britain, as he felt that the American people's problem was with Parliament, not with Britain. Following the US Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776, Dickinson was given the rank of Brigadier-General in the Pennsylvania militia, and he led 10,000 soldiers to Elizabeth, New Jersey to protect the area against British attack from Staten Island. However, his unpopular views concerning independence led to him being passed over for promotions, and he resigned his commission in December 1776. That same year, he prepared the first draft of the Articles of Confederation.

In 1779, Dickinson was appointed to serve as Delaware's delegate to the Continental Congress, and he signed the Articles of Confederation. In 1781, he was elected to represent Kent County in the Delaware Senate, and the General Assembly elected him President (Governor) of Delaware shortly after. He addressed lagging militia enlistments, funded the state's assessement to the Confederation, continued to support an alliance with France, and agreed on no separate peace with Britain. In 1782, he became President (Governor) of Pennsylvania while concurrently serving as President of Delaware, which was not uncommon at the time, due to Delaware's small size. He resigned as Governor in Delaware in 1783 as new elections were held, and, as President of Pennsylvania, he resolved border disputes with Virginia, but could not settle the dispute over the Wyoming Valley settlements with Connecticut, which also laid claim to the lands. He resigned in 1785, and he donated much of his library and land to John and Mary's College, which had been named in their honor by founder Benjamin Rush, and which was later renamed to Dickinson College. In 1787, Dickinson served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and he fully freed his slaves that same year. He died in Wilmington, Delaware in 1808 at the age of 75.